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It's Psychedelic Baby Magazine

It's Psychedelic Baby is an independent, music magazine. We are covering alternative, underground, non-commercial and non-mainstream artists in variety of shapes and genres. Exclusive interviews, reviews and articles. A place where musicians can express themselves. We serve an international readership.

What's up? by George Kinney

I have been asked by the publisher of this magazine to write a column periodically and I'm honored to have been invited to participate in this innovative, contemporary publication.

I have carefully considered what would be an appropriate subject for an introductory column, and I have decided to try to begin at the beginning, and try to identify just what it is that's wrong with everything...what is the big fuss all the time?...why are folks so angry most the time?....in other words, to borrow a time worn adage...Why can't we just all get along?

To uncover these base causes for civilization's discontent is obviously a huge chore, but I'm going to try chipping away at it and maybe it will help shed some much needed light on why things aren't going the way they could and should be, and instead seem to be going toward a destination that is not at all favorable for the proper development (evolution) of our species.

It dawned on me this morning that one of the chief culprits in the misdirection of our societal paths is the overt lying that goes on from our early childhood experiences. Rebellious youth? Hell yeah. Intelligent, curious, energetic youths naturally rebel against that which is obviously untrue. They haven't learned yet that it's best to just go along with the lies because it's more comfortable.

The lying starts out early. Much of it occurs in the name of religion. We are scared to death by the potential punishment of burning in a horrible hell after we are dead if we go against the 'rules'.

Sure, most of the rules make good sense...don't steal, don't kill, don't fuck your neighbor’s wife...stuff like that. But it goes much farther than those natural and sensible codes of social behavior. The fear tactics are established early on and continue throughout our entire socialization process.

But the big point is, it is mostly all founded upon lies. No one can clearly describe what actually happens to a transient soul, if anything, after death. Folks vary in their ideas about that, as it should be until the day, if it ever comes, when we evolve sufficiently to clearly comprehend such lofty concepts.

As of now, however, we delude ourselves if we try to establish firm, concrete concepts and make non-flexible commitments to behavior that are designed to propagate that which essentially false. Better to just admit we just don't know stuff and abandon our denial that we are still ignorant about many key ideas regarding our primary sense of self-identity. That is the first step in correcting the falsity and beginning to learn and understand the true nature of our potential evolution. John the Baptist spoke of this when he insisted that in order to progress properly, we had to undergo a major change in our fundamental thinking. The original word he used to denote this process was, in the early Greek translation, Metanoia. The later translations changed it to “repentance” and thus radically altered the meaning of the concepts originally intended to be communicated. A fundamental lie was inserted in order to establish control, not lead the people to liberty, truth, and proper evolution.

As you can see, there is an enormous, yet subtle difference between the terms. Metanoia connotes a fundamental modification of one's information processing system...thinking...and the other has a much more sentimental, negative meaning. To repent is to feel ashamed about one's behavior and place oneself under the rule of the church in order to regain favorable status with a “God” whose benevolence is distributed by the church. However, in actuality, sentimentality has little or nothing to do with it. The change that John the Baptist spoke of had everything to do with seeing things in a completely different light, not just being sorry for some act you might have performed that was not in alignment with established social mores. See the difference? Huge. It is this kind of lying that causes innumerable mistakes and suffering for millions of people. These lies are the main stumbling blocks to the understanding that would lead folks to true and proper evolution, a state of human affairs where immoral and unethical practices would be drastically diminished because they would become obsolete, not just illegal or “immoral”. The metanoia of which I speak is essential to proper evolution. The change of view is just as radical, perhaps even more so, as earlier realizations such as the discovery that the earth revolves around the sun, not visa-verse. Like the analogy of the cocoon into a butterfly, it's really a big deal. The change can happen, but it doesn't have to...it requires our psychological participation...we are a self-evolving model. Nature has brought us this far, but now we are at the stage where we need to jump in and help nature by adjusting our psychological outlooks to accommodate the potentials for further evolution which will lead us to whatever the most beneficial future exists for us the ultimate realm of all possibilities.

The point is, once we realize that we won't go blind for masturbating, or break into convenience stores in wild rages for coca cola and chocolate after smoking a joint, then we naturally doubt the validity of the rules that society imposes upon us and we rebel against them. As the immortal John Lennon implored: Just give us some truth!

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Psychedelic Folk issue available

Dedicated to British psychedelic folk. New issue of printed version projected from the well-known, leading psych on-line site It’s Psychedelic Baby. After the previous issue covering exclusively the US psychedelic folk scene (IPB 002, 2016), this new issue covers the 1960s and 1970s British folk scene, with exclusive interviews of members from acts such as Fresh Maggots, Comus, Mellow Candle, Dr Strangely Strange, Spirogyra, C.O.B., Incredible String Band, Fairport Convention, Pererin, Courtyard Music Group, Magic Carpet, Sunforest, Oberon, etc. Also includes a few pages of record reviews. Cover by Justin Jackley.